Lavender's Lessons
by Mary Aseltyne
Summary: A young woman in Ninglorost wants to learn how to be more womanly and turns to the elves for instruction after witnessing a curious scene. Starring Legolas.
1. Chapter 1

Lavender's Lessons

By: Mary A

Beta: Malinorne

Pairing: Legolas/OFC

Rating: T

Warnings: Mildly adult sexual situations with some nudity, more spicy than graphic.

Fandom and Timeline: LOTR semi-book-verse, shortly before the Ring Quest.

Summary: A young woman in Ninglorost wants to learn how to be more womanly and looks to the elves for instruction. Het Legolas/OFC

Disclaimer: This is a work of amateur fan fiction written just for fun. No infringement is meant on the rights of JRR Tolkien or his estate.

A/N: The opening quote about Ninglorost is taken from: Scenes from a Life by Malinorne and used with her permission. You can find the entire story at My Home Page -- just click on my name above, and I highly recommend it to elf-loving readers. (Warning: Scenes from a life is rated NC17)

This story is based on a scene in Mal's related story Breakfast, which can be also be read at My Home Page, that describes Thranduil and Eadhild enjoying each other in a window, only to be witnessed by some people who are walking by on the street below. I was curious about that girl who saw them, and the consequences, and I owed a story to a fan who wanted to read about a girl named Lavender. Ninglorost is a town invented by my beta.

Chapter One

_Ninglorost was a small human settlement situated at the foot of the Misty Mountains, not far from the Gladden River and about one hundred miles north of Lothlórien. Its inhabitants usually referred to it as "the Town", an epithet it would hardly have deserved in a less sparsely populated area. The name, simply meaning "Gladden-town" was in Elvish as was the custom of the Men of Gondor who had founded it some centuries ago. _

_Little else remained of the somewhat refined culture of these pioneers, who had sought to establish a base within convenient distance from all the main Elven realms in Middle-Earth. The "Town" had gradually deteriorated as it began to attract the usual rabble of villains, whores and merchants of disputable honour that was characteristic for settlements with a large number of travellers passing through. _

_The heart of Ninglorost was its inn, a modest establishment whose main assets were the maidservants, always willing to do everything in their power to make the guest's stay as enjoyable as possible in every respect - especially if the guest happened to be an Elf._

_from: Scenes from a life, by Malinorne_

Lavender saw them from a distance before her mother did, and she pretended not to notice, although her heart beat fast at the sight in the upper window of the inn. Now she was possibly going to see, with her own eyes, even if only in a few quick peeks, what she and her girl cousins had only speculated about.

Whenever father brought them to Ninglorost on market day, she secretly studied the infamous structure and wondered about the goings on within, which she had heard about in giggling whispers from her cousins.

Her family had only recently moved to the area and they currently lived with her father's kin on the outskirts of this village that people around them referred to as 'the Town', even if it was barely deserving of the title 'village'. She had lived in a real town before and had been to a large city, once, but she understood how it was more a term of endearment to refer to the conglomeration of establishments beside the Anduin as the Town; it was an inside joke.

The inn was notorious throughout the local region, no matter the size of the community that surrounded it. Three roads met there, ancient roads that were no more that glorified paths, made by the elven folk of the forests and from over the Misty Mountains. Long before humans settled by the banks of the Anduin, the folk of the wood walked there, and carried boats on their backs to float downstream to the elven realms to the near south, or to the mortal cities even farther away.

This meant that elves were almost forced to travel through the town on their way to wherever they were going, and the local folk took advantage of that fact by making them comfortable with accommodations suitable to their kind. The inn was staffed by people who enjoyed the company of such unusual clientele.

When Lavender and her girl cousins would get together, their conversations always turned to imagining what happened in the upstairs rooms of the inn. Almost all of their facts came from overheard remarks made by their parents, and other grownups, and from their own observations of who came and went. From these clues, they spun their own fancy tales of how the naughty serving wenches of Ninglorost plied their trade.

"Do you think it is true that they have a special room with an enormous bed..." one of them would whisper, while the others would look over their shoulders to make sure they were not being spied upon.

"With satin sheets," another cousin would contribute, world wise and all knowing.

"And the maids get to choose the elf they want and then they take them into that room."

"Do you think that they take all of their clothes off?"

"Who? The elves or the maids?"

"Both!" And at this point, the conversation would dissolve into hysterical giggling. To imagine bare naked women and bare naked elves together, in a special room, with a big bed, was almost more excitement than they could endure.

Even though her cousins, Lily and Rose, had lived in this sheltered region their whole lives, they both behaved as if they were privy to all of life's dark secrets. Perhaps because they were pretty, and were often praised for their copper-hued tresses and amethyst-colored eyes, they thought they were sophisticated and wise. The cousins openly flirted with the young men who worked for their family during the hay-making season, burly workers, tanned by the late summer's sun, whose loud voices and flashing white-toothed smiles were intimidating to Lavender. She could not understand the attraction.

Whatever the cause of her cousins' self-assured behavior around men, Lavender willingly deferred to their knowledge about the private behavior of elves and humans. That was more interesting to her, for reasons she was too self-conscious to talk about, so she never brought up the subject of the inn when she was with them, although she never really had to.

No beauty herself, or at least not enough of one to earn the type of open admiration her cousins received, Lavender held no hope that she would ever be courted or wed, and that worried her. Was she doomed to die a spinster? And never know the touch of another?

When she was younger, in the town she grew up in, there was a woman who gave her music lessons who did not have a husband. She was not ugly, or without normal domestic skills like knowing how to cook and keep house. But she was educated and prim, two character traits that were treated with disdain by the others in the town, and even little Lavender could tell that a man would probably not fit neatly within the tidy teacher's home.

The music teacher was also an object of pity and even scorn, although it was cloaked and subtle, if any took the time out of their lives to mention her existence. Lavender took note of the remarks about the 'old maid', and it seemed to her young mind, from the tone of the overheard conversations, that the worst fate a woman could endure was to never know the touch of a man's hand, or to enjoy a lover's kiss.

For some reason, as far as Lavender could gather, being husbandless was a result of not being 'womanly', and was neither a desirable nor natural condition. However, it could be avoided only by acting more womanly, and for the rest of her life she feared growing older without ever learning how. Accordingly, although the idea of a man's hand on her body scared her, it scared her more to think that it might never happen. But her cousins' stories about elves had given her a strange new hope.

According to them, elves were enchanted by human females and were willing to be lovers with them for the pleasure of the encounter. The folk of the forest were not likely to ever court or marry a mortal maid, but they seemed to be Lavender's last and only hope to know what it would feel like to be a real woman, and have a better chance at being womanly.

Although Lavender had lived in a town larger than Ninglorost for most of her life, she had seen very few elves, and none up close. When she was very young, her family had traveled all the way to Minas Tirith, and she had seen a large group of them riding through the cobbled streets on dainty footed horses with braided, beaded manes and headstalls with tinkling silver bells. She barely noticed the riders, except for their dangling booted feet, which did not perch on stirrups. For years after, when she heard people speak about the elves; she thought of those horses.

But shortly after they had come to live near the banks of the Anduin River, Lavender had seen a small party of elves, and this time she was not distracted by any horses, because they were on foot. It was a stunning sight. They wore gray cloaks over gray leggings, their hair was dark but their skin was white, and they seemed to be made out of shadows and ice. Flowing and solid at the same time.

She had been alone, walking on a path by the river that led to blackberry bushes, and was being cautious in case there were any bears eating there. Beside her trotted her dog, Snap, a small but feisty pug-nosed terrier who behaved as if he could kill a bear, if ever allowed to, so she felt entirely safe. At the very least, he would smell one or detect it, in whatever mysterious way that dogs used to discover the presence of other living things, and would bark to alert her.

This day, instead of yapping or growling, Snap had come to a sudden stop on the path and whimpered excitedly. Not in pain, but more in the way he sounded when he would ask for a treat, a pat on the head, or to be let into the house; a happy sound of wanting to have something that could possibly be denied, with his tail wagging rapidly. She looked in the direction his muzzle was pointed and saw them, elves, standing just outside the tree line a few yards away.

Not one of them looked her way. They seemed focused on something across the river and she turned to see what was there, but all she saw was more trees. Swiftly she turned back, but the elves had vanished into the forest in that short time that she had taken her eyes off of them, and she felt instantly bereft, as if she had made and lost her first and only friends in a matter of minutes.

After that day, she had wanted very much to see another one, and had mentioned the mysterious sighting to her cousins. It was then that she had learned about the reason why elves often came through Ninglorost on their way to almost anywhere; they came to tarry at the area's only inn where they were made welcome, and where the women working there enjoyed their company in scandalous ways.

As Lavender and her mother drew closer to the inn on that particular marketing morning, she had seen someone in a window of the notorious upper story, possibly two people. Although she felt close to seeing a fallen woman for the first time in her life, there was every chance that they were normal guests, taking the morning air.

They came closer and Lavender held her breath and dared herself to have a longer look. When she was sure that she would not be seen by her mother, who was staring ahead as if she did not see anything on either side of her, just like a horse wearing blinkers would behave, she turned her head and stared straight up at the window.

Two people were standing there, a woman in front of, yes, it was an elf. A tall elf with golden hair that flowed long and spilled over his shoulders. They were both fully dressed, although the woman's skirt was bunched up around her waist. Lavender's heart nearly stopped when she realized, after only a few seconds of viewing, that the way his lordly mane shook in a steady rhythm meant they were not simply lingering by the window to breathe in the fresh air.

Were they doing what she thought they were doing? In broad daylight? How shocking, if true! Instantly she felt her cheeks glowing, as she struggled to absorb what she had only fleetingly witnessed. Beside her, almost in her ear, she heard a man say, "Look at that wench!" And she stopped in her tracks, certain that he had noticed her naughty staring and that he would point out her obvious flustered condition and its cause.

However, the man, who looked disheveled and as if he had not slept yet, was gesturing up at the same window where the golden-maned elf and the woman were standing, and whatever else they were doing as well, instead of at her. With his elbow he nudged his equally unkempt companion, as he spoke, "That point ear is really giving it to her!"

Her mother gasped at the language, and Lavender saw the color drain from her face, but she did not speak or in any other way acknowledge that she had heard the slurred words of the disrespectful man. They walked a little faster to put the men, who reeked of ale and were obviously drunk, behind them far enough to be out of their reach.

Lavender wished she had Snap with her; he would have protected her better than her mother, whose only response to rudeness was silence and a frown. But those vulgar words hung in her ears like the resonance of a tolling bell. Echoing and echoing. The envy and the admiration in the drunken man's voice thrilled her, "That point ear is really giving it to her." She would never think of horses when she thought of elves again.

Her cousins made her repeat every detail over and over, even though at first they had dismissed her tale and almost refused to believe it. They too had never seen or heard of such activities taking place where all of the public could see, if what Lavender described was truly lewd behavior and had no other, more innocent, explanation. And they might have convinced themselves she had not seen anything more than a serving wench and inn-guest enjoying the sun on a bright morning, if not for the words of the drunken man.

"There are not many elves with golden hair who visit here, at least that I have ever seen," remarked Lily almost at once, but she had to admit that the term 'point ear' was pretty specific.

"Are you sure he wasn't just leaning over her to look out of that window?" Rose nearly sneered when she asked, she was that convinced of Lavender's naiveté. But, like her sister, she had to admit that there was not much else the elf could have been 'giving' the serving wench, in the posture described, and with the moans that were heard, besides 'that', whatever 'that' was.

Although they had all seen rural-life romancing involving barnyard animals like hens and a rooster, or pastured cows with a bull, they were really none of them quite sure about all of the details when it came to people, and they assumed an elf would be not too different from a man. It seemed there should be more to it than there was with the animals. The use of hands, for instance, and kissing.

Merely relating the tale had been such an embarrassing ordeal for Lavender that she was almost sorry she had mentioned it to her doubting cousins, but they finally admitted, grudgingly, that they were sorry they had missed the event and a bit put-out with themselves for not rising early enough to join in the visit to town.

"How do you think those women are hired?" Lavender held her breath after she finally found the courage to say such a thing out loud. She tried to ask it casually, as if she was just curious about such arrangements and not from any personal interest, but she was sure her more well-informed cousins would see right through her and know she was asking for herself.

Luckily, the both of them, once they had admitted that she had seen what she thought she had seen, were too interested in hearing another recitation of the morning's events to have even noticed her question. She decided not to ask it again, yet, when they made her start over, at the beginning, and repeat every single thing she had heard and seen.

If Lavender had felt braver, once she had finished retelling everything, she would have asked again how women found employment at the inn, but she could not bring herself to ask twice and risk exposing her underlying desire to find a way to get into the inn, and find an elf to take to that fancy room with that big bed, and maybe even to find out what one looked like bare naked.

That lordly elf with the golden hair haunted her for days afterwards; he was handsome, and virile, and had seemed proud of the display he had made of his lust for the lucky wench in his grasp. Lavender tried to imagine what was taking place under the lifted skirt, but the mechanics of the ways adults made love were a mystery to her. But intriguing. He was very different from the gray clad party she had seen at the forest's edge, but they were all more interesting to think about than any of the men she had seen in the town, who would never look twice at her anyway.

But haunting her along with the image of the handsome elf was the woman he was with, and the way her face was slack with pleasure and the moans of satisfaction she emitted. A strange heat would sweep over Lavender when she recalled the scene, a tingling sensation that seemed to settle between her legs and at her breasts. If it was true what her cousins said, that the maidservants at the inn could have their pick of the elves who visited there, then she had to find a way to work there. Before it was too late and she turned into a spinster. But how?

T b c

Legolas will show up in next chapter... stay tuned


	2. Chapter 2

See chapter one for disclaimer.

A/N: FFnet stripped the information from my first header where I tried to share about the stories written by my partner Malinorne that inspired Lavender's Lessons. There are two of them, one is called Scenes from a life and the other is called Breakfast, they are both at our website. To go there, click on my home page or google for the name thaladir and look for Mary and Mal.

Chapter 2

It was a long while after Lavender's view of elf lust in the window of Ninglorost's infamous inn that she finally had another close up look at elves. In the vain hopes of seeing another silent party emerge from the forest, she had continued to visit the river path every day during the summer, long after the berries were gone and the brambles had withered, but with no success. Even Snap seemed sad not to see them again.

Her parents would never have allowed her to seek employment at the inn, so she did not mention such a wish to them. They did not even let her visit the Town unescorted, which meant that the most she could do was dream about having an encounter with an elf there. She might have been allowed to go to town to continue her music studies, but there were no teachers in the region so, besides market day, there was little reason for her to leave home. It was discouraging.

And then there was a series of harvesting feasts at local farms within a period of just a few weeks, each with bonfires, cider, and music. Her cousins insisted on attending each one as the harvesters moved from crop to crop, here an apple orchard, there a potato patch, and they dragged Lavender along, even though all the young men ignored her.

She would watch Rose and Lily attract every available bachelor to them like flowers draw bees, while she sat in the shadows and tried to guess at their ability to be womanly. But when she compared her cousins' suitors to the golden-haired black-clad elf in the window, she was not jealous.

Just when Lavender had come to the conclusion that her life was over, her cousins informed her of the marvelous outcome to all of their recent gadding about from farm to farm. The traveling feasts all culminated with a grand Harvest Festival in Ninglorost. And there were going to be elves in attendance. Finally, a reason to celebrate!

For the occasion, Lavender wore a pretty dress borrowed from Lily, and she allowed Rose to fix her hair in a fancy do. She held little hope of being noticed in the company of her fetching cousins, but she hoped to be able to study any of the elven folk who were there from a distance, and she did want to look her best.

Her hair, straight, thick, and raven-dark, was an annoyance to her usually, and she was grateful for Rose's skillful touch after it was swept up and away from her face, where it normally fell in front of her eyes and bothered her. Instead, her cousin had twisted and piled the heavy mass on top of her head, and tortured her with hair pins to keep it in place.

When her father saw her, he pretended not to recognize her.

"Has anyone seen my daughter?" He looked around as if still waiting for Lavender to appear. "Who is this lovely young woman before me?" His question brought squeals of laughter from Lavender's cousins and heat to her own cheeks. She had never felt pretty before and she could not help but think that he was being kind, more than truthful, but it was nice to hear.

The center of the town had been decorated for the party with a real wooden dancing platform hastily constructed in the center of the dusty street. There were ribbons handed out for prize winning produce and livestock, the latter of which were kept in pens at some distance from the dancing to keep the flies away. There were games and contests, like apple bobbing, pie-eating, and, at the end of the day, archery.

It was mostly for the archery competition that the elves from the woodland kingdom in the east had shown up, there was a fee to join and the grand prize was the purse containing half of the silver coins collected. There were other prizes too: a yew bow and a leather quiver with hand tooled designs on it.

It was during the archery contest that Lavender saw the loveliest elf she had seen so far. He was very much like the golden-haired elf she had seen in the window, except that his face had softer lines and a sweeter expression. He and his darker haired companions were not clad in black, but wore tunics of forest green and leggings that were dark tan. Lavender could see how they could easily hide in the trees.

"Those are the wood folk of Mirkwood," she overhead a man say to his companion. "And that tall one with the goldy locks is their king's son, I hear. Supposedly the best marksman of the lot."

"I have heard of him," replied the companion. "This should be a good show!"

At those words, Lavender was enchanted. With more courage than she had ever felt before, she slowly sidled closer to the elves and studied them surreptitiously, sneaking sideways peeks, while she marveled over their musical voices. They spoke a language she did not understand, to her dismay, but she enjoyed the way it sounded. Her thoughts turned to the inn. What would it be like to be in that special room with this handsome royal archer who stood just a few yards away from her now?

When it was his turn to step up to the line to take his turn at shooting, the crowd hushed. Lavender was close enough to notice how long his legs were, the lean musculature clearly defined through the skin-tight buckskin leggings. She thought of that elf in the window again, and the lucky maidservant, and tried to imagine being there with this archer, which made her cheeks burn and sent tingles through some embarrassing parts of her body.

At that dramatic point, the blond elf carefully nocked the butt of an arrow into his bow's string and, before he lifted it to shoot, he paused, turned his head, and looked right at Lavender. She nearly gasped as his eyes met hers with almost a physical touch, and as she stared, transfixed, the corner of his mouth curled in a rakish grin and he winked before turning back. A clap of thunder would not have startled her more.

Before she could even fully register the gesture, and its meaning, in one fluid motion the elf lifted his bow and let fly the arrow, hitting the target dead center with a twanging sound that seemed to penetrate her heart. The gathered crowd applauded and Lavender clapped the longest and the hardest. She wanted him, even though she had no idea what she would do with him, or how to get him, and she would die if she could not have him.

Again she moved stealthily to close the remaining gap between her and the group of elves. But, before she could get as close as she had aimed, her cousins found her and dragged her away to meet some of their friends. With a sorrowful backward glance over her shoulder, Lavender was able to catch a last glimpse of the lovely elf, son of a king, and was rewarded with a flashing grin from the expert archer. Her feet barely touched the ground after that.

From a distance then she watched the handsome Mirkwood elves, with the son of the Elvenking leading the way, outshoot everyone else in the region. The human menfolk in the contest did not seem distressed by their losses; they were in too much awe over the display of elven bowmanship to dwell for long on their own lack of skill in comparison. Lavender learned that the winner's name was Legolas and she wondered if he knew the other fair-haired elf she had seen in the inn's window, and if they were related.

There was never an opportunity to ask, however, as her family left the archery field for the banquet tables, set up in a nearby pasture. Lavender was happy to see that the elves joined in the feasting, although they did not sit very near her, instead of melting back into the forest after winning all of the prizes in the contest. Every once in a while she was sure the blond one, Legolas, was looking her way, but he did not approach her where she sat, and the crowds of people constantly moving in front of her view did not allow much more than quick peeks at him.

But after the dinner was through, and the feasters moved away from the tables, the elves had disappeared, and when the dancing started Lavender wished that she could go home. No one was going to ask her to dance, she was sure of it. And any who did could not possibly match the graceful beauty of the elves that were gone.

Forgetting that to find a husband and avoid spinsterhood meant being courted by humans, Lavender ignored any likely candidates for dancing partners and mourned never having a chance to speak to the elves before they left the feasting tables. For a while she stood at the sidelines and watched the merry crowd without really seeing anything. She wondered about the elves, and if they had gone back to their woodland home, deep in the forest, or if they were still in Ninglorost... at a certain inn, perhaps?

Whether it was the hard cider she drank with her meal or a surge of bravery brought on by blossoming womanhood Lavender would never know, but she decided to take the opportunity to sneak away and take a close look at the inn, which was not a great distance from the festivities. She had not gotten very far when her cousins caught up with her. It surprised her that they had even noticed she was gone from the dance.

"Where are you going?" Rose asked, and Lily said, "She is headed for the inn, I would wager, aren't you?" Lavender nodded, not really upset she had been found out; it felt good to have company once she had left the safety of the friendly crowd behind her.

"We're coming with you," they announced and she was happy to have them along, for strength. As the three of them got closer, they could hear music and laughter coming from the open windows of the inn's common room. The doors were standing open, too, and lamplight from within spilled out like a splash of gold on the wooden steps that led up to them. Lavender and her cousins stood out of the light, in the shadows, and were content to look through the windows for a while. Within, they could see that the elves were indeed there with some of the town's local folk. They had not gone home, after all.

Lavender recognized some of the men of the area who had competed in the archery contest. They were lifting mugs of ale as they sat at tables, or stood beside them, with the elven competitors. The serving wenches, each bearing a tray perched on their shoulders, wound their way through the throng with happy expressions on their pretty faces. Oh how she wished that she was one of them!

But she could not see the tall golden-haired elf anywhere within the common room, and her heart sank when she realized that he must have already been chosen for a visit upstairs by one of the beautiful maidservants. Instantly, she looked up at the second story windows, but they were dark. If he was up there, he was not showing off with whatever lucky wench he was with.

"Why do you hesitate to enter?" The voice behind her was unexpected and Lavender gasped and then whirled to confront the tall elf, the king's son, Legolas, standing right before her.

"I am... we are... not supposed... not allowed...," she babbled out breathlessly, not wanting to admit they were misbehaving, before being saved by Lily, who interrupted her to explain.

"We were just passing by and stopped to peek in the windows," she said, "and we really can't stay very much longer." As she spoke, Lily turned and then pointed down the street where the dancing was taking place. "We have to get back there before we are missed."

"So soon?" The elf spoke directly to Lavender, ignoring her cousin. "Why not stay a while? At first I thought that you three must work here, you are all quite fair, and this inn only employs the comeliest maids along the Anduin."

"No, we do not work here," Lavender answered, somewhat amazed that he could speak another tongue besides his own magical-sounding language. Even though he had not taken his eyes from her, she could not believe he meant to include her when he spoke of how fair they were.

"And we can not just go in there," spoke the knowledgeable Rose, although she simpered at his flattering words. "The only women who are allowed to go in there are the ones who work there." The princely elf laughed at her words, but did not sound scornful when he answered her, finally turning his gaze away from Lavender long enough for her to breathe normally again.

"That is not true," he said, still amused, "but perhaps you mean that only a certain kind of woman would be tempted to enter this inn?" Both Lily and Rose nodded in agreement, giggling nervously. He turned to Lavender again and continued, gently, "A woman who is brave, perhaps? And not afraid to explore the unknown?" Her cousins grew quiet.

"I think so," whispered Lavender. She wished that she were that kind of woman, at this very moment.

"Then come along," he said, his hand out to her. "I will treat you to some of the area's finest ale." Rose and Lily both drew in their breath in unison, but Lavender spoke before they could say anything. As much as she wished she could take his hand, she could not let him take her inside.

"Regretfully, I must decline your invitation. My father will be angry if he learns that I went into the inn with you, sir elf," she said, not sure of how to address an elf, much less the alleged son of a king. "And there are too many local townsfolk inside for the three of us not to be noticed." Although, if she was completely truthful, she did not think any inside would recognize her, but she was sure that all of the men within would know her more attractive cousins.

"Very well," replied the elf, with a calculating air, "I know of a secret way in, just for the privileged to know, and no one would see you enter. I have a room where we could be alone and enjoy our ale." He lifted his eyebrows at his last words, and Lavender wanted to say that she would go anywhere if she could be alone with him, but not to drink something.

For some reason, Lavender did not want to admit that she hated the taste of ale, but she could not accept his invitation for herself, even if he had offered her raspberry mint tea. At least she could not say what she truly desired with her cousins standing right there on either side of her, staring at them. In shock, it seemed they were, from the turn of the conversation.

"I noticed you were very interested in the archery contest today," Legolas said pleasantly, surprising them all with the abrupt change of subject. "Do you know how to use a bow?" This question caused gales of laughter from her cousins, who both claimed, loudly, that only boys would care about having such skills.

"No, kind sir, I have never used a bow, or even touched one," answered Lavender when they had quieted down.

"Then how do you defend yourselves if your menfolk are not around to protect you?" The elf seemed genuinely curious, no longer flirtatious with his questions. "Surely none of you have the strength to wield a sword or spear?" More laughter from her cousins as neither could imagine having to wield anything much more dangerous than a hair pin.

But he grew even more sober and serious, lifting his chin as if speaking with great authority, while adding, "A bow is a most worthy weapon for a fair lady, and one that can be used at a distance by those who are too weak to fight hand-to-hand with their foes." The cousins stopped laughing, and looked a bit fearful at the thought of 'foes' that might need to be fought off, with bare hands.

"I would like to learn how to use one," Lavender admitted, although she had only at that moment decided it would be a good idea. As soon as she was done speaking, the conversation was interrupted by a group of men leaving the inn, boisterous and loud, as they tromped down the wooden steps. Quickly, she and her cousins moved back deeper into the shadows, fearful of being seen so far from the safety of the festival crowd.

"We have to get back to the dance, Lavender," hissed Rose, sternly, as if her cousin was the only reason they were still lingering by the forbidden inn.

Lily echoed the sentiment of needing to return immediately to the dancing, after the loud men had moved past them, obviously headed in that very same direction. "Before papa comes looking for us," she said.

"What will he do?" asked the handsome elf, bemused. "What would happen if he found out that you were here? Will you be punished?"

"He will scold us severely for peeking in that inn," Rose replied. "And mama will probably cry."

"He will not let us out of the house for months, probably," said Lily, dourly. "We would probably not be allowed to come to town for the Winter Festival, either, or in the spring, for the flower dances." She frowned to think of it.

"And you?" Legolas turned to Lavender. "What will happen to you that would make you want to go back? Not many are offered a lesson in bowmanship from... the winner of an archery contest." He drew closer to her, speaking to her only and no longer concerned with her cousins, and added, "I could not teach you everything, of course, but at least you should know how it feels to hold a bow, and pull its string, and nock an arrow, should the need ever arise for you to defend yourself." He smiled, and his eyes seemed to glow as he described each action.

As naïve as Lavender was, and as unlearned in the arts of seduction, she was nevertheless very sure that he meant more than archery lessons when he said that he could not teach her everything. Just by the way he talked, and the look in his shining eyes, she understood that he wanted to be alone with her, no matter what the excuse used to achieve his goal. Her heart began to beat fast and her mouth felt dry, because she thought that, as impossible as it was to believe, they shared the same goal. She very much wanted to say yes. To shout it.

However, she hesitated, and for several minutes she considered her answer. If she was found standing and talking to this elf, she would probably not be punished, actually. If she entered the inn and drank ale with him, then her father would scold, perhaps severely, and her mother would not speak to her for a few days, possibly.

But if she went somewhere private with him, and was found out, then she assumed that she would be forbidden to come to any more of the Town's festivities, or even allowed to come with her parents on market day, or ever allowed to step foot from the house again, although it was hard to care about anything they might do to her. She turned to her cousins.

"Tell mama and papa that I went home by myself, that I did not feel well, and don't tell them where I am," Lavender said calmly, not exactly knowing how she managed to do so, to their open-jawed shock. "I think that I want to learn how to use a bow and arrow tonight. Will you help me keep it a secret?"

t b c


	3. Chapter 3

Lavender tried not to think about what she was doing as she held out her hand to the elf, Legolas, and let him guide her toward the inn. Her stunned, but equally curious, cousins had agreed to keep her private archery lessons with him a secret, but only after they had pulled her aside and made sure she understood that the price she would have to pay afterward was a recitation of everything that happened to her.

"Of course I will tell you everything," she whispered, embarrassed to be discussing events that had not taken place but that she hoped soon would. If they would ever leave. "Now please go back," she added, "before someone comes looking for us." Lavender made slight shooing motions with her hands as she spoke, hoping they would go before she changed her mind. She could have added, truthfully, 'Or before I lose my nerve and come with you!' But she managed to keep that thought to herself.

Lily and Rose were not worried about Lavender's safety. One thing that they had firmly established in all of their speculations about elves was that they were a gentle race. If they, any of the three, had ever heard of a single incident of an elf harming a mortal maid, they may have been more wary. But one thing they did know about the folk of the wood was that they did not pose a danger to humans in the way other creatures of the forest were known to do, or other humans for that matter.

But once Lavender was alone with one, she felt nervous all over again. What was she getting herself into?

"Do not be afraid," Legolas said softly as he drew her around toward the back of the inn. "No one will see you go inside, I promise." And she actually relaxed a bit when they were no longer visible to any possible passer-by on the street. She guessed that he must be taking her to the secret entrance he had referred to earlier, in an effort to hide her from the men inside the common room, which she saw as a gentlemanly gesture.

Attached on the back of the inn was a staircase that led to a short balcony at the back of the upper story's rooms. Before Legolas took her up the steps, he paused and turned.

"There is something that I have to do first. Something that I have wanted to do since I first saw you," he said, while letting go of her hand and grasping her shoulders gently to steady her before him, "since today, at the archery contest."

He was going to kiss her! She just knew it. With pounding heart and shaking knees, Lavender closed her eyes, tilted her chin up, and puckered her lips.

As she waited Lavender thought that her banging heart sounded so loud that he must hear it, and then she wondered what was taking him so long. When she felt the elf's hands in her hair, she jumped a little, but then her eyes flew open when she felt his quick, nimble fingers find and pluck out the hairpins that were poking her scalp, bringing instant relief to the constant, but bearable, irritation, and letting her hair fall loose to her shoulders.

"Much better," he pronounced as he arranged the thick mass to his satisfaction.

"It's horrible like this!" Lavender complained while pushing the hair that instantly fell into her face back behind her ears. "I hate it," she hissed as it fell right back.

"Perhaps I can fix this problem," Legolas said and he moved around to stand behind her. She stood still, puzzled, as his hands twisted pieces of her hair up and back from her eyes. "There, is that better?" He turned her to face him and grinned at her. She reached to feel what he had done, but he stopped her hand.

"Be careful," he cautioned, and then let go so she could pat the pieces of hair he had somehow twisted in such a way that they stayed firmly placed on either side of her temples, and out of her eyes. "Trust me, it looks beautiful."

"You are too kind," she said, gratefully. Did he know that she thought he was going to kiss her? Before she could worry about it, he took her elbow and led her up the stairs.

They entered a door that opened up into a narrow empty hallway, which he explained was used by the inn's workers to have access to the supply cupboards, which were located along the wall. Lavender nodded numbly in reply, but was too nervous to speak. Was it possible that he was taking her to that special room?

Legolas opened another door that was between the cupboards, and, this time, peeked inside first, before drawing her through with him. This one opened up into the regular hallway where the guest rooms were located, and it was empty for the time being. Lavender saw numbers on the doors as the elf pulled her swiftly past them. From the common room below came the sounds of the happy crowd.

When he stopped before one of the doors on the side of the hall that was not facing the street, Lavender was confused. Was there more than one special room in this inn?

"Please, let me enter first," he said, politely. "I want to make sure that I have no unexpected company within." As he spoke, he walked into the room and peered around as if suspecting danger, while she followed behind him. It was exciting, but Lavender could not imagine what possible peril there could be inside. The room was empty.

Lavender was disappointed, too, with how rustic the special room turned out to be, compared to her and her cousins' imaginings about it. There were no satin sheets on the normal sized bed and there was very little other furniture. The window was shuttered and the air was still to the point of almost being stifling. There were two chairs beside a table and they were all very plain and made from pine.

But the elf did not seem to notice anything awry with the accommodations. Instead he lifted his bow from where it sat in a corner, next to a quiver filled with arrows, and laid it on the table. After gesturing for her to sit, he drew a string from within his tunic and showed it to her. Then he sat in the other chair to teach her how to attach it to the bow.

Lavender's hopes were dashed as the awful realization crept over her that he truly did intend to teach her about archery, after all! But she was also cheered when she also realized that she was not expected to immediately remove all of her clothes, like she had believed. It was quite a relief. His patient voice was soothing as he held the bow between his knees and showed her how to bend it backwards to place the string at both ends.

The rest of the lesson, however, was a disaster. As soon as Legolas was done demonstrating to her how to attach the string, he removed it and handed her the bow so that she could try it. Her thick skirt proved to be slippery when she tried to grasp the narrow weapon between her knees, and even with all of her might she could not pull the bow backwards a single inch.

And it was so warm in the room that it made Lavender even more uncomfortable as she worked at bending the iron-hard wood. Sweat dripped from her forehead and trickled down both her back and between her breasts. She had to fight the urge to let go of the bow to wipe her face or pull the fabric of her bodice away from her skin.

When she raised her eyes to her archery instructor, he returned her gaze with the same glowing heat that she had noticed earlier, when they were out in the street, which gave her a start and made her heart flutter. But then he smiled at her in a friendly fashion, leaned forward, took the bow from her hands, and quickly restrung it.

"Let us leave this part of the process on the wayside for now," Legolas said, and then offered his hand to her and drew her to stand. He added, "I can see that is more important that you know how to hold a bow to begin with."

After moving around to stand behind her again, he handed her his bow and then put his arms around her, his arms right over hers, in order to help her place her hands correctly. Her banging heart finally was quiet as it came to a complete halt. For a moment, she could not even see.

"Do not hold your breath," said the elf. He had turned his face slightly as he spoke, which caused his lips to caress her ear, and it sent shivers down her spine. This brought her to a new level of awareness of how he was physically closer to her than any person had ever been before now, except her parents. "To aim and shoot, you must breathe and remain calm," he finished. She thought she might scream.

"I'm sorry!" Lavender gasped out. She gulped in air and then tried to breathe more normally, which was decidedly impossible after he had pressed the full length of his upper torso against her back, and leaned forward slightly, to help her hold the bow.

"You have done nothing to be forgiven for." His warm breath seemed to stroke her cheek.

Finally, he had her hands placed on the bow how he wanted them; her slippery palms gripped the bent wood and taut string so fiercely that her knuckles were white, and he stood away from her. Now she could breathe.

The elf circled her slowly as he instructed her in her stance and posture, reaching out now and then to touch her back or hips or shoulders or head. "Bend your knees a bit," he would say, or, "Relax your elbows," or, "Keep your chin up," and she was soon dizzy from all of the different directions. It was almost as if she forgot how to stand and hold something at the same time, and she felt very awkward.

"Very well done," said the elf, to her relief. "I will make an archer out of you tonight." After crossing the room to pull an arrow out of the quiver, he approached her again, and she tried not to feel sad that he was not leaning against her anymore. "Now," he told her as he handed her the yellow-feather tipped shaft, "you will learn to put the arrow on its string."

Before she could ask him how, he stepped behind her again and put his arms around her just as he had done before, to show her. Her hand shook so badly that she dropped the arrow, but he reached out and caught it before it hit the floor. When he handed it to her, their fingers touched for an instant, and then he grabbed her hand, took the arrow from it, and pressed her palm to his face.

"You are far too warm! Your skin feels on fire!" he exclaimed. "I should have paid more attention to your mortal needs, but I was too intent on our lesson to pay enough heed, please forgive me," he said, as he dropped her hand. "Should I open a window? It must be miserable in here for you, I had not thought of that."

To Lavender's dismay, the elf moved away from her yet again, this time to open the window shutters, but she was grateful when the fresh air reached over to her. The room had been very stuffy, although there was no fire in the hearth. It had been a warm day and the heat from the common room below seemed to radiate upwards.

Legolas beckoned her to come to the window and she was happy to stand next to him there. The view was mostly of the starlit sky above the silhouette of the forest lands behind the inn. He took the bow from her hands and set it to the side. Even though it was cooler now, she wished her hair was off of her neck. Impatiently she ran her hands underneath it and lifted it to catch the breeze before letting it fall again the way the elf had placed it. He turned to her and smiled into her eyes.

"Your hair smells as fragrant as a flower," he said, and then, cautiously, as if afraid to alarm her, he slowly lifted a thick lock from her shoulder and bent to press it to his nose. "You are very clean, for a human," he stated. No one had ever said anything like that to her before.

"Mama makes me bathe in the brook behind the barn every day," she blurted out, and then regretted saying such a childish thing. Her cousins laughed over it at first. But then they found the experience of swimming in the swiftly flowing stream that flowed from the Anduin over their land, and slowed into a pool behind the barn, so much fun that they often joined her there. They would all wear their shifts into the water, with nothing on beneath. Just thinking about it made Lavender crave the feel of the clear water on her hot skin.

"To be near you is very pleasant," said her companion at the window. "And most unusually so."

"Thank you, sir elf," Lavender replied. She was happy to hear that he found her company pleasing.

"Please, my name is Legolas," he protested. "You can say Legolas, can you not?" He stroked her hair again.

"Legolas," she said. It was not such a hard name to pronounce.

"Say it again," he whispered, and his stroking hand traveled to the back of her head as his face lowered to hers. Lavender froze in complete panic. He really was going to kiss her this time! And all she had to do was say his name...

"Legolas?" Instead, the name was called in an odd sing-song way, by a woman standing at the other side of the door. It startled the both of them. There was a knock. And then again, the voice said, "I see the light in there. Is there a lonely elf in there, too?" Lavender looked back and forth between the door and the lonely elf, and wondered who it could be and why she was there.

There was a short pause. And then another knock, harder, and Legolas hurried to open it while the voice continued, "Are you waiting for some company? Did you not say to me...?" But the question went no further when he finally cracked the door and spoke to the woman on the other side in sharp whispers. The answering voice was quieter for a moment.

As Lavender watched, he constantly pulled slithering hands off of his neck that reached out to embrace him again and again, while keeping the rest of his body pressed against the door to keep the persistent visitor from pushing inside.

"But you promised!" The unseen woman wailed, and Lavender wished that she could sprout wings and fly from the window. What if that woman managed to push all the way in and saw her, what would she do or say? It was possible that only the women who worked here were allowed up into this room, and maybe there was some law being broken? Or, even worse, what if Legolas let the visitor in and asked Lavender to go home?

After more whispering, and groans of compliance from the stranger, Legolas at last closed the door. He stood with his back pressed against it and smiled ruefully at Lavender.

"How would you like to take our lessons outdoors," he asked, "where the air is fresher and we will not be interrupted?" She could not refuse such a reasonable request.

With the bow and quiver slung over his back, Legolas slowly opened the door and peeked out into the hall, looking both ways, before pulling Lavender through and then quickly down the hall to the servant's entrance they had entered through.

Now Lavender was very puzzled. She was quite sure that he was about to kiss her when they had been interrupted by the mysterious visitor, so why did he insist on carrying his bow now? But she did not ask him; it was fine with her if he wanted to show her how to hold the bow again, and again. If he would lean against her while he did so.

They plunged into the trees that grew almost up to the back of the inn, on a path that must have been so well known to the elf that he did not seem to notice the pitch-black darkness inside of the forest. Lavender trusted him to lead her. When the path finally led them into a clearing, she was surprised to see that they had traveled in a large circle and had come back to the banks of the Anduin, although they were a bit farther north from Ninglorost.

"Before any more archery lessons," he explained as he placed his bow and quiver beside a tree, "I thought maybe we could swim for a bit? You enjoy the water, am I correct?"

Without waiting for her to answer, he shed his tunic, revealing alabaster skin in the pale moonlight. He pulled his boots off and stood straight to unlace his leggings before Lavender was even sure what he was doing. She could not even imagine how she could stay dressed, but she was not ready to be naked.

"What are you waiting for?" In the darkness, she could see his teeth as he flashed a smile at her. "We will both feel much cooler in the river." And then his pants were off, and he was naked. Lavender tried to stay as calm as she could while he turned and walked away from her to enter the river, those long legs that she admired were even nicer than she had thought. Keeping his back turned, he stood still after the water had reached his waist.

"Go ahead, I will not look at you," he said. She almost started to undress, but then wondered if there was anyone else nearby, who might be watching them. As if reading her thoughts, the elf laughed gently and said, "We are quite alone, I swear it to you."

Moving further into the river, he splashed his hands in the water and remarked about how refreshed and energized he was feeling already. "You do not know what you are missing," he told her, his voice inviting. At last, she decided she would join him, and turned around to undress. Every once in a while she would glance over her shoulder to make sure that he was still there as she carefully removed her clothes and folded them.

When Lavender reached her shift, she paused, and then, in a bold moment, pulled it off and stood as naked as the day she was born, in the dark, beside the Anduin. It felt wonderful. But when she turned to enter the river, she felt suddenly shy again as her nudity was revealed and she covered her chest with one arm, and placed her other hand between her legs. Swiftly now, before she could change her mind, she ran into the river, hoping to get into the water up to her chest.

The brook behind the barn on her uncle's land flowed gently, and because it was shallower than the Anduin, it was not as icy cold. Lavender was almost immediately swept off of her feet in the frigid river's overwhelming current, and her efforts to keep herself modestly covered had to be instantly abandoned as she floundered around trying to keep her head above water, and not swallow too much of it.

"There, there," said Legolas. The unexpected embrace of his arms around her was like a miracle, and she clung to him tightly, choking, coughing, and sobbing with relief as he held her up and kept her steady.

"Do not fight the water now," he told her as soon as she began to feel safe again. His mouth was inches from hers and his eyes shone with that familiar fire. This close, his wet face seemed luminous, as if his skin reflected the starlight. "Let the river flow over you," he was saying, when she finally heard him.

Slowly, Lavender relaxed, and became more and more aware of his naked body pressed up to hers, keeping her afloat as if it was the most natural thing in the world. She felt weightless and not even connected to her body as she gazed into his eyes and regained her composure enough to speak.

"Thank you, sir, I mean, Legolas."

"Ah, you finally said my name again," he answered, and then he kissed her. Now she was not afraid, because she had no time to feel afraid, and his mouth moved gently over hers, not demanding anything from her but that she not pull away. She complied, and when his hand pressed her head closer to his face, she responded.

Beneath the flowing water, his other hand moved over her back, pressing her even more tightly against him. Lavender thought she might faint when his tongue sought entrance and she allowed it. She fleetingly worried that he would lose his footing and then drop her into the water. It would drown her for sure because she was so limp, but then her thoughts blurred to nothingness.

The world was spinning, but when she felt something hard below her waist, pressing against her hip, she froze. Legolas abruptly broke away from the kiss and a look of regret swept over his handsome face.

"I should take you home, child," he whispered. "Before this goes much farther."

"No!" Lavender was devastated. Did he find her kissing skills repulsive?

"You are too young, and too tempting by far," he said. "But there is no pleasure in this kind of sport; it is like killing fish in a tub."

"But... but why...?" She had to fight back tears of fury, at herself for being led this far, and at this elf for leading her there. "How could you?"

"Oh, I want you, very much, that is not the reason," he said, as if knowing exactly what it was that had angered her before she had realized it. "And I never meant for it to come this far." He glanced down and his grin indicated the naked embrace they were still engaged in. "But I will come back some day to finish this properly, when you are ready. You are not there, yet."

His reasoning was flawless, but her heart faltered. She was still unsure that he was not laughing at her, after making her feel wanton with such little effort. It was embarrassing.

"Will you wait for me, I wonder?" For the first time, he seemed unsure of himself, and Lavender's anger melted completely when he added, "Will you forgive me?"

"Of course I will," she promised, her heart soaring again. "And I will wait for you, forever." He laughed.

"It will not be forever," he assured her. "I know that I will not be able to wait that long."

For the last time that night, he kissed her again, just as sweetly as he had before, and then led her from the river back to where they had undressed. Shyly now, as if she had not been naked yet before him, she dressed, pulling the dry clothes over her sticky wet skin as fast as she could, with some difficulty, but managing.

To her surprise, the dancing was still going on in the distance when they returned all the way to the Ninglorost inn. Neither of them had spoken a word along the way.

"In the spring there will be another archery contest," he said, breaking the silence. "I will look for you. Will you be there? Perhaps you will be ready for another lesson?"

"I will try my hardest to be there." As if wild horses could prevent her.

Legolas pressed his lips to her hand and bowed to her before sending her off to find her family, and explain herself to them. For a moment, they just stared at each other, and then he turned and left her. She lifted her eyes to the upper story of the inn, some of the windows were lit, some were still dark, and she realized that there probably was no 'special room' after all. It was not a disappointment. Even without one, she had still seen an elf bare-naked.

As she approached the crowd of merry-makers, Lavender was so happy that she almost laughed when her cousins spotted her and ran to meet her. She had her story carefully planned, a smile on her face, and a womanly sway to her walk. And if she never saw that elf again, she would always be grateful for the lessons.

The end

The town of Ninglorost is invisible to anyone who does not believe in elves. Only those that the elves love are allowed tobe there. I do not know why this is so, maybe it is the ale...?


End file.
